A sheep in wolf's clothing

Star Trek Continues : Fairest Of Them All

It’s long gaps of waiting between episodes but these guys are sure showing us that they are well worth the wait. Star Trek Continues brings us their 3rd episode and once again I am blown away by the job that this low budget team is capable of doing. Imagine what they could do with a decent budget. Infact, I wish they would chuck the rebooted/alternative universe Trek in the last two movies and just make STC the official Trek. They are doing a great job of respecting history and continuity.

So what are the folks at STC giving us for episode 3? Well if you Trekkies remember The Orginal Series season 2 episode Mirror, Mirror which showed Captain Kirk, Uhura, Scotty & Bones accidentally being transported to the Mirror universe and interacting with the crew of that Enterprise, this episode is a sequel to that. The episode shows the prime universe’s Kirk speaking to Mirror-Spock to stand up, take charge and be part of the revolution to change the ways of the Terran Empire before Kirk says goodbye to Mirror Spock & Mirror Marlene and along with Scotty, Bones & Uhura are transported back to their universe and their Mirror versions are brought back. Mirror Kirk demands and answer and Mirror Spock tells him that an ion storm interfering with the transport beams caused the switch. (Here onwards I will omit the prefix Mirror) Kirk tells Marlena to wait for him in his quarters and goes to the bridge. He addresses the Halkan leader and demands that if they do not yield to the wishes of the the Federation to mine dilithium on their planet, they will be destroyed. He then goes to his quarters and jealously asks Marlene if she had Prime Kirk in their quarters as well.

Spock, troubled by Prime universe Kirk’s speech takes the help of Scotty and plans to take over the ship if Kirk will not listen to reason. Kirk angered by Spock’s suggestion that they not destroy the Halkans’ planet plots to kill Spock using the secret spying device in his quarters but Marlena has tweaked the controls so that it appears to be temporarily malfuctioning. Kirk has the planet fired upon which causes a lot of damage to it. Spock & Scotty recruit a few willing volunteers and take over Auxilary control, rendering the Enterprise unable to use their weapons no matter how much the officers at con try. A previously imprisoned Chekov sides with Spock while an ambitious Sulu tries to use this tusle between the top ranking officers to his advantage but is knocked out by a phaser set to stun. A showdown between Spock & Kirk ends with Spock tricking Kirk to broadcast his low opinion of the crew – by calling them disposable and there to cater to his wishes – and the vast majority of the crew side with Spock & Scotty. A mutiny of sorts happens without much bloodshed and Kirk, Bones, Chekov and a few of the crew are given a shuttle to travel to the nearest inhabitable planet and as a parting jibe, Spock admits that it was Kirk himself or rather Prime Kirk, who suggested that Spock be the man to make the revolution happen in the Mirror Universe much to Kirk’s anger.

Guest stars include Asia DeMarco as Marlena & Kipleigh Brown as the buxom blonde Smith at helm while Chuck Huber replaces Larry Nemcheck as Bones and does a better job in filling in the role – shame he had so little to do! Grant Imahara is better here as Sulu – scar on the face and all and Kim Stinger as Uhura & Wyatt Lenhart as Chekov are much better here in bigger supporting roles. Michele Spetch only has a tiny appearance as Dr. Elise MacKennah. But give Vic Mignogna & Todd Haberkorn a prize each because they really embrace their roles and Todd in particular shines over here. Same for Chris Doohan who is shockingly so similar to his dad! 8 outta 10 for this episode guys!